Sony: PS4's main selling point will be 'new playing options, not improved hardware specs'

As Sony Computer Entertainment warms up its blue lighting and double-checks its playlist for February 20th, one unnamed SCE official says that the PlayStation 4 will act as more of a home entertainment hub than what we've seen in the past. They added, according to the Nikkei, that the main selling point won't be the rumored eight-core AMD64 CPU or other hardware specs, but how it opens up new styles of play -- something Nintendo is also focusing on.

will be like every other console that has evolved from a previous platform. The revolutionary systems are generally the ones that are new to the game.

From that point, the follow-ups are deemed evolutionary. Improving on things to differentiate themselves from the previous release. Sony knows what they want to have in their next system. be it new ways to play or trying to reinvent something that failed before but the timing is better now to bring it back.

The tech will be improved but please understand that cost has always played a factor and we as consumers are expecting more for our $$ but the companies too have expectations to deliver for a certain price range.

The main selling point of ANY system is the games and perceived entertainment value it can bring. No manner of hardware will sell without the right software to showcase it properly.

If sony chose the conservative route and released the ps4 with much more internal ram and better cpu/gpu but stayed with the existing idea of the hdd and bluray then so be it. It will still represent an evolutionary step up from the ps3.

Many seem to forget that competition isnt always about the other guy but also about themselves. Sony will obviously make the unit better than the ps3. That is the idea for any new platform from an existing company. Making it better than the other guy is just a bonus.

***"that the main selling point won't be the rumored eight-core AMD64 CPU or other hardware specs, but how it opens up new styles of play -- something Nintendo is also focusing on. Sony is going to push the new console as a home entertainment "nerve center," with a focus on the hardware's ability to connect and share to mobile devices -- the rival that's pulling gamers away from traditional consoles."***

So if this is to be true, all those that praise MS for making their system go the route of being an 'all in one' box and praise smart glass for it's functions and being compatible with multiple smartphones as opposed to a single device like the Vita and all those that praise Nintendo for bringing about new ways to play games should have no problem with the PS4.

All those that bashed/criticized MS and Ninty for the things mentioned above should be okay too, so as long as Sony doesn't fail to deliver on spec front and/or stop focusing on games... I don't see why anyone should be unhappy with the PS4 assuming the rumors are true unless if you're a fanboy of course.

I would like to know who was the guy that started this "gameplay over graphics" bullshit. Graphics is equal if not more important than gameplay. Take the god of war series. Same gameplay for years, with better graphic over time. If the game looked like the ps2 days on the ps3 ,NO one would care and it, and the series wouldve been dead years ago. I play games for both. But if the game looks the same as the ps2 days (jaggies and bad texture) i woulnt pay for it no matter how good the gameplay is. So please Kill this bs saying. Without great graphic how would you imerse in a game with good gameplay? Alot of us wouldnt except it.

Riiight..do you remember the original Playstation? Or even the Playstation 2? Neither of those home consoles were better than any of the competitors systems that launched alongside them. They were always the underdog until the PS3.

Brilliant systems, brilliant games, but don't go trying to say they always have cutting edge tech or powerful hardware. Until PS3 they lacked both of those things. By console standards anyway. No console has cutting edge hardware, they are all made out of old cheap, outdated CPU, GPU etc, that's a fact you can't argue with.

It's really hard to say what Sony's philosophy regarding power is. On one hand, the PS1 and PS2 were fairly weak consoles, but on the other, the PS3 was powerful. And the PSP was vastly more powerful than the DS, but the Vita, although more powerful than the 3DS, does not show such a big gap as the one that was between PSP and DS.

I wonder what the "new playing options" are? The only new options that have been hinted at was a wii-u like controller, and a Kinect like camera. Is there some thing else, or will I have to wait for Feb 20?

Hard to say. I do like the fact they call them "options" however. I'm not a big fan of being told how I should play my games, and don't want to see a focus on one specific method of control or usability of the games themselves.

The reason console gamers want the best tech possible is because most console owners cant afford pcs that we constantly have to keep upgrading. That is why it is disappointing when you hear pc people talk about their graphics card and how consoles cant keep up. Its true. But can we at least hope that we will have a significant upgrade granted that no one knows what the specs are truly capable of? We get it, pcs will always be ahead of consoles.

Well don't say something that's false and expect to not get a response. I remember back in the day when Sony said that the PS3 is a media hub for games, movies, music, ect.

All the Xbox fanboy were saying we buy them to play games not watch movies blah blah blah blah. Its the hypocrisy in this generation that makes me hate it so much, which mainly comes from the 360 crowd from what I see.

As far as fanboys go, both sides are as bad as each other, but what irks me is that other fanboys such as Septic and Lvl_up_gamer label this place as a "circlejerk haven for PS3 fanboys", when let's face the facts:

Back at the start of this gen when 360 was most popular and in the mainstream light more than ever, it was the complete opposite here on N4G with everyone and their grandma bashing on PS3, hating Sony, it's games, everything about it, and... mostly the 360 fanboys on here outnumbered the PS3 guys vastly.

And they still do the same, but the difference is that when PS3 gains traction and things turn around, these people just ignore the history of events and act disgusted at the behaviour of PS3 fans, when people like them were doing the same things a few years back when it was in their favour to say or do such things. Why was it that PS3 fans were right all along that PS3 wasn't doomed, PS3 had games, Blu-ray wasn't doomed etc., etc,. Yet they should just sit back and watch Xbox fans praise MS for the things they poo'ed on?

It's not damage control - it's years of 360 fans talking bullcrap that was never true and filling the comments sections with epic proportions of hypocrisy and double standards. Some of the current 360 fans on here feel vicitimized that Sony fans are hating on the 360 or Microsoft? Well, harsh sh*t.

To conclude, Sony simply do more in this industry, thus, there is more Sony news and discussion, thus, there are more Sony fans on a website dedicated to gaming news. Deal with it!

hmmm...well I use my PS3 for all my media serving and watching needs, outside of the cable box that is.

So not sure what your on about MS being superior. MS own media serving solution in windows is one of the most abysmally designed and counter-intuitive programs I've ever used, so yeah, MS ain't that far ahead when you can find free options to serve media which are a hundred times better and offer more features.

***Sonys a little late to the media hub game, MS are miles ahead in that area. ***

That is factually incorrect, FYI. PS3 is a set-top box in Europe for many already. PS3 has blu-ray. PS3 doesn't have 'media app' additional subscription requirements.

I'm not quite sure how you got to your thinking. Perhaps it is because the 360 released a year before the PS3, but it's been behind on many elements in comparison to the PS3 on many major media elements and lost out by backing the wrong media device for HD movies/tv on disc.

I'm not going to say that Sony may not copy something Microsoft or Nintendo is/has done, but your logic makes no sense.

I don't get how its sad? DD means cheaper games. People complain that they cant trade in, so they wont buy as many games (valid point)

But if you think about it. Publishers will think 'hang on a sec people wont buy as many games as they would do, so we need to have price point that makes people swing our way'.

Example COD 30 is £79.99
or Battlefield 8 £29.99?

Atm with shops they can charge more for download as they know some will pay more to have it on the Hard Drive. I think we can agree that the much cheaper disc version sells more then the DD version.

But if someone said, disc version is £49.99 but the DD version is £39.99 you would soon forget about having the box (another thing people say).

Look at Steam, there is no second hand market for PC gaming (there is but its tiny) and look at the sales they have. Publishers will want you to spend money on them. They know you wont if there is a just as good a game for cheaper.

agree/disagree ps3 has alot of newer games for digital download but if they dont drop the price of digital download then i dont think it will turn out that great i just bought the 500g ps3 i have only downloaded deadspace 3 , RE6, all stars, jurassic park all four episodes, and it has taken alot of space if they do digital download they would have to have a massive hard drive on the system to hold your whole list of games. and i just dont see that happening plus there the same price as if you went to game stop and purchased them.

4.)PS4/ORBIS- All of the above +GAIKAI/SEN Cloud service. *Sony's derivative of Valves's STEAM service- Most, if not ALL PlayStation's library of content, spanning all 3 generations will be able to be played on-

Not quite blue-ray was way ahead of its time, for example the PS3s blue ray drive would support 4k movies with a firmware update...it's just that HDMI port on the system won't.

It will still be blue ray for sure; just a more advanced form of it as BR drives support up 16 layers(400 GB), 14x read speeds, 4k video, etc. Compared to the 2 layer(50GB), 2x read speed drives in the PS3.

ha! i highly doubt it.. It will be a boost in power, functionality, & networking.. These new engines devs are making arent just for PCs as console owners are a much larger portion of the market & ive seen what witcher 3 is looking like.. Current gen cant do that

possibly it wont be MASSIVE but if the leaked specs are any indication, its a good enough boost... Plus it says "main selling point" meaning thats prolly what they will market instead of just how sexy the games look..

Consoles closed ecosystem allows them to regularly outperform PCs that cost 3x as much at launch. The pricepoint difference is minimized as time moves on and eventually you see a clear difference in quality for a price that is only twice the cost of a console. Go ahead and compare the price of any PC from back in 2005-6 that can still even run today's games lowest settings 720p. You'd be looking at rigs that were $1500+ in those days.

@DivineAssault you are tryng to use logi with people who spend 1k every year or two for 10% of faster fps and 100 more pixels in the same game a console gamer does not. they are happy the way they are.. they think UE4 or ANGIS FF engine are made for them and the PS4 will not be able to run games of those qualities sine they know how to imply math and just a high end card cost them $600 and is impossible for Sony to launch a console with suh a power it will cost Sony over1k LOL

naiveness is among us sadly..

powered by todoslibres.com want to wake up and be normal? be aware of the truth!

The problem is they didn't need to use the PS3 to push Blu-ray. They only claimed it was needed because they want the movie royalties. Most games would have been fine without it. PSN downloads prove that. Take away the uncompressed audio that most can't hear or don't have the equipment for and DVD is enough space.

If the PS3 had launched without Blu-ray we would have already had new consoles because the price competition would have forced such low returns that the best move would have been new equipment. One of the main reasons Blu-ray was made too. People aren't being cheap. Sony was just marketing to two different groups with the same product.

Audio/videophiles will pay $1000 for a piece of equipment. Gamers won't. At least not console gamers.

Im hoping they can improve the remote play for the vita to the ps4 this time around as a one of their playing options because it wasnt really handled well with the ps3. HAving the Vita as a controller like the WiiU version would be pretty cool.

Next gen is all about multimedia and connection, with everything, your Facebook acc, email acc, YouTube acc, twitter, bank acc, pc, iptv, smartphone... you name it. And now you see the reasons for always online and used games block?! No, you are a HARD CORE GAMER, you only ask for games, and you will boycott such absolute control over hardware and software? Well it is your choice, but many other will buy it and believe me, they are not in to games so much. There will be so many features packed in the nex gen consoles appealing for a much wider target audience, and only ONE feature is there for gamers,it can also play games. Now, to all so called HC gamers, nobody actually cares about you.

If next gen goes digital download only, and Sony and MS don't get their pricings correct, example, new game in UK £40 in store, £60 on psn, its robbery. Unless they go like steam. DD is going no where. Saying this though, I still believe they won't block used games, will kill off an entire market if they do.

In all honesty Sony probably had the best overall console this gen. I play the xbox way more but that's only because, only one friend owns a PS3 and the xbox controller is way better imo (minus the d-pad). Sony has always come out with great hardware, even for the hand helds. I don't see them stepping away from that next gen. They will probably focus more on the entertainment side but the hardware will still be top notch.

Thing is nowadays you cant even voice a preference without being labelled a fan boy ... Personally the xbox controller hurts my two index fingers and I hate xbl because its full of 12 year old wiggers, but I do like party chat ... So I like my ps3 more but xbox is ok too

@ Monkeycan8. Thanks for adding some sense to the Sony hate fest people were building up.Let's not forget who was the ones kicking Sony down for trying to make their console into a multimedia hub and now suddenly people are congratulating Microsoft and Nintendo for doing the same damn thing Sony has been trying to promote for years.Always talking about what N4G is a haven for when there are just as many ignorant Nintendo and Microsoft fanboys blabbing on about crap every day. And then we have to listen to 'N4G is a site for PS3 fanboys. 'And then they run off to site where they can talk ignorant thing with their own kind and pretend we chased them away because we spoke up against their crap. We had to listen for years how Sony should concentrate on games and not features and how much exclusives matter and then only for the two faced fanboys to turn around and say the opposite later. Spare me who is more obnoxious. I had to listen to 360,owners beg for MGS4 and how games look slightly better and Nintendo owner broken record of 'power and specs don't matter' and Super Mario Galaxy is the greatest game ever for years and it was on N4G. Don't try to pretend it wasn't.

@ Ryo-Hazuki.Well said guy. here is a bubble. They are merely saying they will not focus on the PS4's power but rather it options as home multimedia device which is something Sony has been doing even before Microsoft and Nintendo decide to pull their heads out of the sand and do it too.Sony never focused on power anyway so I am not sure why people keep saying that.Sony was the one handing us all the features including a whole virtual world to play around in when Microsoft and Nintendo were giving you squat and you were still buying their consoles. It was Microsoft fanboys who harped on about HD and how third party games look better on the 360 and said Sony was wasting their time giving us Bluray, Home etc.

I hope people can understand what they are saying. The PS4 will be powerful and actually it's rumored to be slightly stronger than the next xbox. They are just saying the "selling point" will be the social features and new ways to play...etc. It's just marketing they are talking about. You won't be seeing by "the power of the PS4" type marketing because quite frankly the casual consumer doesn't care about that. Us hardcore gamers already know how strong it is

I hope Sony doesn't focus on competition with tablets and phones while not integrating the PS4 with the VITA like they showed so much of on the PS3 and Vita. I play games on my phone but would never play them on console, on VITA and Console it's more the serious game.

Sony has always strive to have their current on the market for 10yr+ ( with new console coming out every 5-6yrs). By the look of these specs and how long its taking new console to come out. I bet it may be more powerful than anyone could imagine. Same for xbox new console. These new one may be around for 12yrs before anything new is released. Production cost is low so why not